Review: Illuminate by Aimee Agresti

Illuminate (Gilded Wings #1) by Aimee Agresti
Young Adult, Angels, Demons, Romance
hardcover $17.99 (528 pages, HARCOURT)
Ebook $9.99
Haven Terra is a brainy, shy high school outcast. But everything begins to change when she turns sixteen. Along with her best friend Dante and their quiet and brilliant classmate Lance, she is awarded a prestigious internship in the big city— Chicago—and is sent to live and work at a swanky and stylish hotel under the watchful eyes of a group of gorgeous and shockingly young-looking strangers: powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; her second-in-command, the dashing Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff of glamazons called The Outfit.
As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers a network of secret passageways from the hotel’s jazz-age past that leads her to the heart of the evil agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the hotel?
Illuminate is an exciting saga of a teen’s first taste of independence, her experience in the lap of luxury, and her discovery she may possess strength greater than she ever knew.
Author Site: aimeeagresti.com

The Long and Slow of It... (4 stars)

Found in a ditch with no memory of who she is or how she came by the ugly scars marking her back and chest, Haven Terra, has managed to make a promising future for herself. Adopted by one of the nurses who cared for her she's an excellent student, caring volunteer, but shy young woman. But her dedication pays off when she, her best friend Dante and classmate Lance, are invited to intern at a glamorous hotel in the big city.

In Chicago, under the careful tutelage of Aurelia Brown and Lucian, her second-in-command, the trio soon find that not everything is as polished and perfect as it seems. Filled with mysterious hidden tunnels and even darker secrets. For Aurelia and her companions are using the hotel as a way station while they purchase souls and the most coveted souls belong to their new interns. Will Haven's attraction to Lucian be enough to woo her to their hellish company?

If I were to boil down ILLUMINATE to it's bare bones this is an excellent story. I could honestly say I loved it. But slogging through more than four hundred agonizingly slow pages before anything particularly exciting began to happen. Suspense is always good but the build up is too slow. Lucian has no personality to speak of and I couldn't figure out why Haven would continue to be attracted to him beyond the physical handsomeness we're told he has. Most of the chapters seem to consist of Haven narrating the ins and outs of getting the hotel ready for opening but never quite giving us any bones to gnaw on.

I enjoyed Lance and Dante much more than most of what was going on. My only quibble there is that Dante felt a little stereotyped though not unlikable. In the end I wasn't wholly satisfied with the outcome, I'd have been pleased to see this as a stand-alone. There were a lot of unanswered questions, definitely more left than were answered.

While I liked ILLUMINATE enough for a four star rating I don't intend to continue the series. The storytelling just dragged far too much for me to want to invest another 500+ pages of reading time on it. If you aren't one who likes lots of action and suspense, or at the very least romantic tension, you might love this one. It has a great concept I just couldn't love the execution.

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Notes: ARC received via Amazon Vine.

Review: Touch of Seduction by Rhyannon Byrd

Touch of Seduction (Primal Instinct #4) by Rhyannon Byrd
Paranormal Romance, Shapeshifters
Mass Market Paperback $7.99 (354 pages, HARLEQUIN)
Ebook $7.20
Audiobook $24.95
Sold into slavery as a child to a cruel taskmaster, tiger-shifter Aiden Shrader trusts no one. Not even his own kind. Yet as a member of the Watchmen--the organization of shape-shifters who keep watch over the ancient nonhuman races--Aiden is fiercely protective of the helpless. Never more so than when he's asked to guard a little girl with witches' blood--and her beautiful human aunt. A woman who arouses all of Aiden's primal urges...urges he must resist.
To small-town schoolteacher Olivia Harcourt, the massive tigershifter with the glowing amber eyes is as much a dark mystery as the enemy stalking her. Yet Aiden is her only hope of surviving. Until their intense passion unleashes her own inner tigress with a ferocity that will make the evil Casus rue the day they messed with her family...and will take Aiden by seductive surprise.
Author Site: www.rhyannonbyrd.com

Hit so many of my dislikes I couldn't enjoy it... (1 star)

Watchmen Aiden Shrader's dark past has earned him the distrust he has for everyone. While he might not trust his fellow shifters he especially dislikes humans. But he's not one who would stand by and do nothing when someone is helpless to protect themselves, human or otherwise. Olivia Harcourt is as human as they come but she's trapped in a world of warring monsters unable to truly protect her witch-blooded niece from the ultimate evil. Even if he's not willing to truly trust her, she has to trust Aiden to help them survive.

With the Casus closing in the pair can deny the lust brewing between them only so long. With danger around every corner and the threat of death imminent their passion will reach a boiling point that neither can resist.

Bleh. I wanted to like this story. I'm actually fond of stories where a child is being protected by the hero or heroine whether it's one of theirs or not. That was about all I liked about this book. The heroine is annoyingly naive. The hero such a cookie-cutter bad-boy in all the wrong ways. Their sex scenes are so cliched and they talk SO MUCH through the whole thing. It was so painful to read and about as sexy as getting a sandpaper back massage. The actual plot is mostly them running from the bad guys via road trip and them talking about sex, overall it was just ugh!

The bad guys love nothing more than eating their victims... while RAPING them. *mild SPOILER alert* That alone bugged me but would have been passable if there wasn't a scene of one of them masturbating while fantasizing about it in enough detail to turn my stomach. I'm not a light-weight. I like my violence bloody and brutal, but in a romance the last thing I want to have in my head is the villain fantasizing about eating the heroine while he rapes her. It was seriously disturbing to read and ruined any chance I would read more of the series.

I'd stopped and started this book so many times before finally forcing myself to finish it I should have skipped the review but once I hit the squicky parts I felt like reviewing it was something I needed to do. I'm sure someone out there loved it and if the number of books in this series are any indication it can't be totally bad but this one just killed it for me.

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Notes: ARC received via Amazon Vine.

Review: Hunter's Prey by Moira Rogers

Hunter's Prey (Bloodhounds #2) by Moira Rogers
Paranormal Romance, Steampunk, Werewolves, Vampires
Ebook $4.50 (SAMHAIN)
Release Date: March 6th
He can't fight his inner beast, but she can tame it.
Bloodhounds, Book 2
Ophelia retired from life as a prostitute, but her new position is even more complicated. Managing the bloodhound manor in Iron Creek is difficult and time-consuming, a job she enjoys less with each passing day. Then there’s her inconvenient attraction to Hunter. The newly turned hound seems eager to enjoy her company, but wary of anything more intimate.
Having survived the violence of his first full moon out of a cage, Hunter isn't looking forward to his first new moon. Ophelia offers to be the woman who sates his needs during the three long days of sexual fury, but he can't abide the thought of hurting her in a state of mindless lust. Especially since she longs to settle into a respectable life, and his needs are anything but respectable.
Their mutual goal is simple: avoid entanglements. It’s a solid plan, at least until a vampire drug lord and a couple of nosy Guild representatives force them to work together to defend their friends and everything they hold dear—including each other.
Warning: Contains a mostly feral, vampire-hunting hero and a tough survivor of a heroine whose retired-hooker heart is more steel than gold. Also included: dangerous frontier intrigue, fancy brothels, mad-scientist weapons and a good dose of wicked loving in an alternate Wild West.
Author Site: www.moirarogers.com



Another great Bloodhounds installment! (4 stars)

Retired prostitue, Ophelia, manages the bloodhound's manor with grace in spite of the soul-sucking nature of the job. Juggling the needs of a band of vampire hunting man-beasts is no easy feat when all she wants to do is settle down into a respectable life. Then there's Hunter, the newest bloodhound, more feral hound than man he struggles each day with the beast inside. Their mutual attraction is anything but acceptable to either. His turning was unconventional and he has yet to experience the fury of lust the new moon will bring. The last thing he wants to do is accept Ophelia's offer to be the woman who meets his needs for those three uncontrolable days of sexual fever.

When things become more complicated with drugs being pushed through Iron Creek by the vampires the pair are forced to confront not just the enemy but their feelings for one another.

Rogers has done it again! Taken one wild concept and made it work as the backdrop for a satisfying, sensual romance. The hardest part about reading this series is that I want so much more of the world revealed to me. But as romances, the storylines have to focus on the hero and heroine coming together so once again I got a sip instead of a proper gulp. Which is just going to keep me coming back for more!

I was really excited to see these characters in action and for the most part I enjoyed them. I did find Ophelia a bit less likable than I was expecting but I can't quite put my finger on why. I think there was a certain flatness to her because I wasn't feeling her motivations enough. Why was she so dead-set on a respectable life? What was so bad about her job? Neither of those felt as urgent as they were expressed to be. Yet, when she and Hunter were together it felt right. Perhaps the conflict feeling a bit forced is what I'm driving at. I honestly wasn't seeing any real reason Ophelia shouldn't want to be with Hunter.

Another enjoyable Bloodhounds novel and not to be missed by fans of Rogers! There's plenty of action both of the fighting kind and the love-making kind and just enough set-up to get you interested in the next one.

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Notes: ARC received via author.


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